41–50 of 63 posts
in some cases, startup founders experience this same roller coaster ride.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everybody knows Hubbard started a cult. But I'm talking about the "Church of All Worlds", which found its foundation myth in one of Heinlein's rather less good novels that was nonetheless all the rage for a while in the sixties - while it's no longer easily to hand, I have seen a photo of a couple of hippies at Woodstock, one holding a copy of the novel and expounding to the other. (Possibly expounding; they may just…
(Ex-CAW member here; have been out of it for more than a decade. Posting anonymously for professional reasons, but I used to be personally well-acquainted with both the founders of Church of All Worlds and Robert Anton Wilson.) Church of all world still nominally exists, and has been through several incarnations during the 60s. Although its foundational premise was indeed deeply silly, it was self-consciously so: an…
("Nature is Good" strikes me as lacking nuance, though. I see what you're going for, but toothache is natural, too.)
Judging by his written works, Wilson seems like he would've been quite a man to know. I'd like to be able to say I'm not so small a person as to envy you that opportunity just a little, but honesty compels me otherwise. He was kind of a minor hero to me in my youth and early adulthood, seeing as Illuminatus! helped me gain the perspective to get through some very difficult times in my life; if nothing else, I'd have liked the chance to thank him for that.
A bit odd the author of this article published a novel called "A Separate Reality". He could have at least tried to think of an original title. A Separate Reality - the original Castaneda novel is a lot of fun. Painfully obvious it's fiction, almost fairytale-like, but highly entertaining. Not to mention the wisdom for a twenty-something receptive to any "grounded" life-hack and spiritual skills that aren't delivered…
> how to walk properly How does one walk properly? I'm genuinely curious.
You have to curl your fingers gently as you walk in order to keep your attention on the trail and the surroundings. Your ordinary way of walking is debilitating and you should never carry anything in your hands. If things have to be carried one should use a knapsack or any sort of carrying net or shoulder bag. By forcing the hands into a specific position one is capable of greater stamina and greater awareness.
[1]: http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/donjuan3.html
This site is where I read some of Castaneda's work for the first time. He doesn't just tell you how to walk, he tells you how to sleep, which side to go to sleep on, how to intend things and how to project your intent, how to set up dreaming, how to run like a warrior (sprinting in the dark), and a whole bunch of fun stuff like that. It's very easy reading, you can probably get through all of this stuff at least inside of a day or two if you don't have much to do.
I like the description as "it really happened! fiction" -- this is exactly what I think I felt when I was reading it.
Although the subject matter is captivating and the article well written, the whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth. It really does seem to be the case that charismatic individuals can, as a rule of thumb, get away with almost anything at all. I do understand the need to escape the "tedium of life" as one of the witches put it but it's still highly irritating to see otherwise normal people be consumed by conmen.…
I've come to believe that the ordinary state of human consciousness is actually a form of mild anhedonic depression.
It makes sense for a species that evolved in a world that rarely changed when most activity consisted of slow and painstaking work like farming, making simple things, and hunting. Up until the past few hundred years nothing changed within the time span of a single human life for most people. The ability to zone out for long periods and tolerate monotony would be an advantage. Being too "wound up" would be maladaptive as it would lead to needlessly reckless behavior and destruction of community.
But we don't live in that world anymore.
This is why stimulants of both dopaminergic (caffeine, amphetamine, modafinil) and serotonergic (antidepressants) forms are so popular. These drugs actually normalize our consciousness to the contemporary world. If homo sapiens evolved in the modern world we'd all be wired as if we were on 5-10mg of amphetamine and 10mg of escitalopram all the time.
Here's the thing though. Humans are hyper-social to the point that the mental state of others affects our own mental state. This is partly why centers like Silicon Valley and New York are so powerful-- being around a lot of like-minded productive people actually makes us more productive.
When someone comes along who is just naturally a little tweaked we say they have charisma, and we absorb a bit of that charisma vicariously. We get a nice tweaky brain chemical hit by being around them.
This makes them addictive in a sense, and as with many drugs people will toss their rational mind out the window to get more.
At least his lucid dreams techniques are not that difficult to reproduce. I stopped them many years ago after I had strange experience of waking up for several times in a row. I woke up, went to a next room and, all of a sudden, I realised that it was still a dream. After short panic I woked up again only to repeat the story. And so on, actually I'm not sure if I've really woked up that day or I'm still in that dream…
Those this way interested might also find rewarding the Illuminatus! trilogy by Shea and Wilson; it pretends no special mystical insight, has served as the foundational myth of approximately zero cults (fewer than Heinlein!), and includes at least one dolphin. Does Castaneda have dolphins? Well, I haven't read him myself, but the closest thing the Internet knows about is a College of Staten Island Dolphin Athletics -…
I think our current political culture would be immeasurably improved by everyone reading Illuminatus! and Foucault's Pendulum.
At least his lucid dreams techniques are not that difficult to reproduce. I stopped them many years ago after I had strange experience of waking up for several times in a row. I woke up, went to a next room and, all of a sudden, I realised that it was still a dream. After short panic I woked up again only to repeat the story. And so on, actually I'm not sure if I've really woked up that day or I'm still in that dream…
That's such a profound experience! Do you have a reference for learning those techniques?
I first heard of Castaneda 7 years ago when I was at university. I started with the first book "The Teachings of Don Juan" and proceeded with reading all his other works. I was fascinated not only with the story he was telling but more so, the practical wisdom he revealed. One of the techniques he revealed in his books for expanding your awareness as a human being was to consciously diffuse your gaze for long stretch…
I wish so many people wouldn't try to force things they like into the categories of science or truth, and would be ok with having subjective appreciation for them and getting personal satisfaction from them. I also wish people wouldn't feel the need to try to bash someone's appreciation/satisfaction of a thing with it's scientific incongruity. As long as that thing isn't harming others - meh, live your life.
I read most of Castaneda's books as a teenager (early 90's) and loved them. However this is honestly the first time I've heard of anybody considering them anything other than allegorical fiction, modern mythology and philosophy. The idea that they where supposed to be read as non-fiction had honestly never crossed my mind
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caballo_de_Troya
It's a novel series about a trip back in time to meet Jesus. The author kept a calculated ambiguity and there was a lot of readers (most) that believed it was non-fiction.
I tried the first tome. It was terribly boring. After reading a quarter of it, I skimmed more and more of the text. By the time I reached the end, I readed one paragraph each other page at most. Still I wanted to know what so much people were talking about... big mistake.